Jonathan Abrams ‘95

Founder and CEO of Socializr, an online service for sharing event and party information, Jonathan Abrams is a successful business entrepreneur. Since graduating from McMaster with a B.Sc. in 1995, he has been a part of many business adventures. He worked as a software engineer at Netscape and Nortel and then founded bookmarking community HotLinks. In 2002, he founded Friendster, an online network used mostly by young tech–savvy people to meet and reconnect with friends.

Jonathan is a member of the advisory board of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs, and has been extensively involved in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial community. He has co–chaired the SDForum Venture Finance SIG and been a judge for the Stanford Entrepreneur’s Challenge Business Plan Contest, the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition and the Stanford–Berkeley Innovators’ Challenge.

Named “Breakout star of 2003” by Entertainment Weekly and one of Advertising Age Magazine’s “Entertainment Marketers of the Year,” Jonathan is a well–know contributor in the business of social networking. He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, BBC Radio 5, KNTV NBC11 and TechTV and established himself as the go–to person for input on the phenomenon of social networking.